20100505
Hello Architecture2030 team,
As a response to your White Paper titled "Effective Intervention Points for the Building Sector", I would like to introduce Sola Roof technology, which has an important application to the global greenhouse industry, which produces food locally and is especially important to Europe, where 60% of fresh vegetables are produced by the greenhouse industry. The opportunity to apply Sola Roof in retrofit of over 1 Billion square meters of the Dutch glasshouse structures, called Venlo.
Sola Roof is a low-tech, low-energy and cost effective solution for a massive upgrade of the Greenhouse Sector. Additionally, new greenhouse construction with Sola Roof is highly profitable and provides secure, safe and nutritious food that is CO 2 negative. This is possible because Sola Roof allows for the Closed Atmosphere operation of greenhouses - so that they can effectively and completely utilize an enriched CO 2 controlled environment that regulates temperature and humidity by means of a liquid cooled and heated roof. The Sola Roof has a transparent envelope with a cavity space that employes and effective Liquid Bubble Insulation and Liquid Cooling. These liquid processes are tied to liquid thermal mass systems including vast Cold Water Resources (deep ocean and lake or ground water).
Most roofs can be adapted to use Sola Roof, thus creating a built environment that will produce abundant, nutritious food, purify water, provide low-energy heating/cooling, and abundant clean energy from organic wastes, including crop and food waste which are recycled through a Bio Digester process to produce Bio Gas, organic nutrients and soil conditioning solids at a very high rate. The CO 2 enriched growing includes Mass Algae Culture for oil (Bio Fuel?), liquid nutrients and pulp that also feeds Bio Gas production.
Sola Roof methods reduce heating/cooling loads by an order of magnitude and yet this accessible and Open Source technology has been neglected for decades. If your organization is serious and I can put forward such a high merit innovation that is easily tested (and is currently in use by our DIY community) by any university or other institutions. In my view the resistance to the Sola Roof paradigm shift has been strong by the building sector, while the greenhouse application is our back door to a new fusion of Eco Dynamics? with the built environment.
Perhaps your organization has the courage to take a serious look at Sola Roof. Richard Nelson (Sola Roof Guy)